Aion 4.0 "Dark Betrayal" Confirmed for NA Server in June

MJ Guthrie from Massively brings us a good news! Aion 4.0 will hit NA server in June 2013. She talked this with Sean Orlikowski, the game's associate producer from NCsoft at this year's GDC.

Here are the several parts from MJ Guthrie's Wings Over Atreia Exclusive: Aion 4.0 Launches in June! Except Aion 4.0, you will also can know the celebrating a year of truly free, and the limited-time Shugo dungeon.

Dark Betrayal

As with any major expansion (meaning all the whole numbers), Aion 4.0 has a title. Following in the hallowed footsteps of Assault on Balaurea and Ascension comes Dark Betrayal. Daevas who have been following the storyline thus far will see a continuation of the plots that have been revealed throughout the latest updates. According to Orlikowski, players will find some really good plot twists as the story develops. I'd like to add more about the revelations, but I'm getting this electrical tingling sensation...

When 4.0 hits here in NA, the build will actually correspond to Korea's 4.2; our version will start with two of the new classes right off the bat, unlike Korea's 4.0 launch. Players wanting to test their wings as a Songweaver (the official name of the bard class) or a Gunslinger have only until June to secure free slots on their accounts.

My desire to play the healer/DPS hybrid apparently follows the statistics that NCsoft has noted; Orlikowski shared that between the two classes, interest in the Songweaver has been significantly higher than in the Gunslinger. And why not? According to Orlikowski, the Songweaver is a combination of many of the game's classes -- Sorcerer, Chanter, Cleric, and just a touch of Spirit Master -- rolled into one. "It's got some pretty powerful nuke abilities," he found while playing on the test server. "It's got this three-stage charge-up shot that does just as much damage as some of the Sorcerer's abilities of the same level." The DP ability has damage equal to the Sorc's Pandaemonium Focus. The SW also has sleeps and a mana heal.

Apparently devs are in the same boat as ordinary Daevas: Orlikowski was also lamenting that he'd have to sacrifice some characters in order to make room for the new classes. Maybe he has some sway, then, to get us more slots? Well, he's been pushing for them. "That is actually something I have requested more than once. I would love to see more character slots," Orlikowski revealed. What about just splitting slots by server? "On the last proposal I sent in, that was a compromise: I asked, if you can't find a way to add more character slots, can we at least have eight per server? But I haven't heard back yet." We're crossing our wings for luck!

As we get closer to launch, players can expect more videos highlighting these two classes, Orlikowski noted. The Aethertech (the mech class), however, has no information, either for NA or Korea, so those who want to play this class still have time before deciding which toons get the axe. Perhaps by the time it launches, there will be additional slots!

Celebrating a year of Truly Free

Announced in February 2012, the Truly Free model was a serious departure from the standard payment models in gaming. Get all content for free, no restrictions? Uh, huh, yah, sure. Plenty of players were sure there was a catch somewhere, but there wasn't. When Ascension launched with the new free-to-play model, Daevas found a distinct lack of restrictions along with the loads of content.

Now, with the first anniversary fast approaching on April 11th, NCsoft is gearing up to celebrate the occasion alongside Daevas with some in-game events. From April 10th through the 17th, players will be able to participate in a Decorate the Cake event (collecting aether flames to trade for candles to decorate the cake, just as during the Daeva's Day event). Our captive-audience dev also noted that there should be special offers -- including free items -- in the NCstore. But that's all I know about it, honest! The information prevention device is currently dormant.

In other news

Since I had him cornered, I took advantage of the chance to get a little insight on other things; I asked Orlikowski why the difference in dispensing information this time around as opposed to previous expansions. Seriously -- getting information from NCsoft went from like pulling teeth to needing to shore up against a flood. He explained, "We've decided to embrace the 4.0 news as it came out of Korea. That's why you're seeing things like 'beyond 4.0' when we haven't even been kind enough to give you a date yet."

For those who want to remake characters in order to have new classes, I put in a personal plug for temporarily reintroducing Veteran Rewards (I so desperately want those fairy wings on my new toons!).

Also, good news for folks who missed the limited-time Shugo dungeon: It is expected to return. "It's not a one-time limited thing," Orlikowski assured me. "I don't know when, but we'll be having it again." There's even a chance that the dungeon can be scaled down for lower levels, but that's only a chance.

Oh, and just in case you wanted to know, Orlikowski stated that the recent layoffs at NCsoft "don't have any effect on its games at all." He told me, "The layoffs weren't a result of the games performing poorly or anything like that. The games are completely fine... it's just the company plan."

source:mmosite

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